Category Archives: Uncategorized

On Tuesday, November 17th, the annual Hunger Counts report was released. HungerCount is the only comprehensive annual national report on hunger and food banks used in Canada.

In March 2015, 852,137 people received food from a food bank in Canada. More than one-third of those helped were children.

Food bank use in March was 1.3% higher compared to the same period in 2014 and 26% higher than in 2008, before the start of the global financial crisis. Half of the provinces experienced increases in food bank use in 2015. Hardest hit was Alberta, where unemployment increased by 10% between March 2014 and 2015 in the wake of the dropping price of oil. Three-quarters of food banks in this province reported an increase in use. Nationally, 54% of food banks reported an increase in the number of people requesting food assistance.

It has now been seven years since food bank use reached a low point of 675,735 individuals in March 2008. The need for food banks spiked drastically in 2009 and has hovered at record levels ever since.

Help share these statistics to raise awareness about hunger in Canada! Read more at https://www.foodbankscanada.ca/Hunger-in-Canada/HungerCount-2015.aspx

With one more day to go for Halloween, I decided to figure out how much I’ve spent this year on this spooky holiday. Turns out, it was a spooktacular amount! You never really realize that this small holiday would have you spend a couple hundred dollars, but thats exactly what happened when I started adding the amounts together I had spent on my kids costumes, give away candy, and the party we decided to throw this year.

I decided to go online and search up exactly how much people are spending on Halloween. Figures out, I’m not the only one! Check out the infographic below by Steam Feed that illustrates consumer spending for this year.

We dedicate ourselves to treating the emotional fallout from cancer. Using the sum total of our knowledge, experience, expertise and resources, we do what women trust and rely on us to do – to make them feel human again in the face of the ravages of cancer and its treatment. In doing so, we help restore their confidence, and the confidence of those around them, to continue fighting with conviction and living with dignity.

For more information on them, and the amazing work they do, make sure to check out their website: beautygivesback.ca

Tickets for the gala are just $10, with $5 going to Beauty Gives Back. Guests also receive $5 towards any purchase they like to make during the gala.

During the gala guests can enjoy skincare consultations, makeovers, free samples, as well as refreshments. It’s sure to be an amazing evening. To find out if your Shopper’s Drug Mart is participating, and to get your ticket, talk to a beauty expert at your local store.

To help get the word out there about the gala, there’ll be a Twitter Party on Tuesday, November 3 from 8-8:30pm EST, hosted by @BGBCanada. Look Good Feel Better and Sherry Abbott (Director of Beauty Gives Back) will also be attending the Twitter party. Plus, there’s five $100 Shoppers Drug Mart gift cards to be given away.

We hope to see you there, and don’t forget to use #SDMBeautyGala to join the conversation!

The month of November is fast approaching which means that everyone has a chance to participate in Canada’s 5th Financial Literary Month. Established by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), the aim of Financial Literacy Month (#FLM2015) is to engage Canadians in a conversation about better spending and educate them to make informed and responsible decisions with their money.

Many Canadians – especially Millennials (such as me) – don’t know how to have a good balance between spending and saving and evidently make irresponsible purchase decisions. This is why Financial Literacy Month (#FLM2015) is the perfect opportunity to take control of your finances and educate yourself in how to spend better.

Throughout the month, the FCAC will be collaborating with organizations from across Canada to help Canadians learn more about financial literacy. More importantly, through various resources provided by FCAC partners, Canadians will be able to get insight on better investing, budgeting, financial planning, and protection against fraud.

This year, FCAC has picked the theme “Count me in, Canada” which focuses on the involvement of Canadians from private, public, and corporate sectors to join in on the conversation about financial literacy and educate Canadians about its importance. You can make a difference by joining in on the conversation with the hashtags #FLM2015 and #CountMeInCA on your social media channels.

Want to find out how you’re doing financially? Check out these awesome tools by FCAC to help assess your current financial standing. Lastly, help spread the word and check out the official FCAC social media on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for more updates.

‘Weology’. It’s a word that not many of us are familiar with. I was too in that boat before I came across the book of the same name written by Tangerine CEO Peter Aceto.

So what is Weology? If anything, its a phrase that guides Tangerine as a company and is the reason why they’ve seen such unprecedented success in an industry that’s inherently rigid and inhuman.

To quote the Tangerine website: ‘Peter runs his business in an unorthodox and intuitively human way that has largely contributed to Tangerine’s unprecedented success.’

The truth is the world is shifting – towards a people-centric way of organizing companies. Tangerine is WAY ahead of this curve. Weology means that the culture and ways of thinking put people first – and it shows in both their employees, customers, way of doing business, and ultimately, their success as a company.

In Weology, Peter tells us why Tangerine, its people, its culture and the leadership strategies he adopts for operating in a radically different way are changing how the world sees business.

This book – and ideology – are two of the many reasons why I am a Tangerine customer, and will be for a long time to come. I encourage you to read the book, which you can pick up here.

I just came across a great opportunity to get yourself a gift over the holidays. For those of you that wanted an eReader but didn’t get one here is your chance to get one for yourself, you have until the end of day tomorrow to enter this contest to win a Kobo and $500 worth of books http://bit.ly/heeY1d. Don’t worry if you don’t win because Kobo also has free Apps for the iPad http://www.kobobooks.com/tablets and a lot of the most popular SmartPhones http://bit.ly/gDWaOC . Kobo is also giving you a 35% off your first eBook purchase just for registering http://bit.ly/hqQ8vu.

About Me

Irené Waldman worked 11 years for Visa, before working at Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines, part of the world’s leading alcohol beverage company and is now a marketing consultant working with high profile financial services companies, in addition to collaboration with marketing companies focused on loyalty.